How to get an internship at Google: Saniya Mukhametkalieva's experience

Saniya Mukhambetkaliyeva, City — Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr College student, Google intern, Instagram, LinkedIn

About Me

Currently, I am a sophomore at a university in the US — Bryn Mawr College. It is a small women’s college in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. I am majoring in Computer Science. In Kazakhstan, I graduated from Haileybury, and before that, I studied at NIS in Uralsk.

For the past two years at university, I have worked as a Teaching Assistant for introductory Computer Science courses, such as Discrete Math and Data Structures. Currently, I also work as a Teaching Assistant in the Computer Science lab. Additionally, I am the Program Manager for the Girls Who Code club at our university. Previously, I served as the club’s secretary, and I have been involved with it since my freshman year — we organize various competitions and hackathons.

I also enjoy attending Computer Science conferences. Recently, I was selected for the WECode conference at Harvard. Besides that, I love participating in hackathons — recently, I won one organized by Drexel University.

I had heard about Google internships since high school. If I’m not mistaken, girls from Kazakhstan, particularly from Nazarbayev University, often got accepted into these internships. I had heard about this many times and decided to apply during my freshman year.

Requirements for Google STEP

You must be a freshman or sophomore in university. At that time, I had not yet declared a major in Computer Science, but the requirements stated that the candidate must plan to study this major and have already completed at least one course.
I reached out to my university’s career center for help with my resume. I also asked my friends to review my resume and provide feedback — I tried to get help from all sides. Additionally, I received a referral from a Google engineer from Kazakhstan, with whom I had worked at Technovation. He was the mentor for our team during the competition.

The Application Process

First, I submitted my resume, after which I was invited to an interview. Before the interview, I had to fill out a Project Questionnaire — a large Google form where you need to describe your skills in detail and answer questions about the programming languages you know. However, I am not sure how important this form was, as it was requested right before the interview. I think the interview played the key role.

I had two technical interviews in a row, each lasting about 45 minutes, and they included both technical and behavioral questions.

During the technical interview, I was asked several behavioral questions in the format of “Tell me about a situation where you faced a problem and how you solved it.” I was surprised that the interview was conducted without a camera — they simply called me on the phone. They sent me a link to an online code editor where I wrote the code.

Both interviewers were friendly, gave hints, and helped when I got stuck on problems. At one stage, I reached the last question but couldn’t solve it immediately. Then the interviewer gave a guiding hint and explained, after which I managed to solve it. As I understand it, they also assess your communication skills. For example, I asked for help, and after receiving it, I was able to solve the problem. This showed me that Google evaluates not only technical skills but also the ability to communicate, explain your thoughts, and interact with interviewers during problem-solving.

I went through the interview process when I was a freshman. I had no experience in competitive programming, but the questions were easy, roughly at the LeetCode Easy level. If applying to similar programs for freshmen or sophomores, I think there is no need to focus on difficult LeetCode problems, medium difficulty and above. The main thing is to be able to solve easy-level problems well and improve your communication skills.

When I found out I would have an interview, I was abroad without a laptop. During this period, I watched various mock interview videos on YouTube to understand how they work. When I returned home, I had three days left to prepare. During this time, I solved about 10 problems. During the two interviews, I was asked four to five questions, and almost all of them I had encountered before.

Hackathons and Projects

This program is much more competitive than the SWE Internship because there are many applicants but few positions. I heard that Google evaluates candidates’ leadership potential. It is difficult to expect that freshmen or sophomores are already programming experts, so the company is likely looking for people with leadership abilities and then trains them in Software Engineering.

My resume included experience working in my own startup: we had significant funding and a team, and I was able to demonstrate my leadership qualities. I think this is what helped me stand out among candidates.

Since high school, I have had many projects, participated in olympiads and competitions, and this experience also played an important role in my application.

Not only for STEP, but also for regular SWE internships, many candidates came without work experience or previous internships. The only thing that set them apart was high-quality projects. These were not just projects like calculators, but real projects that reflected their interests and passion for development.

Additionally, positions such as Teaching Assistant, working on your own startups, participating in university research — all of this can significantly improve your resume.

Professional experience is not necessary, but it is important to be able to demonstrate your passion for programming and your skills.

During the STEP internship, you work in a pair with another intern throughout the entire program. My partner was a girl from the US, and together we worked on an intern project. I had two managers: one main and one assistant. I was lucky with them; they were super supportive, constantly encouraged us, were genuinely interested in our progress, and helped with everything.

Besides work, we spent a lot of time walking and having fun with the team, participating in various fun activities. Once, our large team went to San Francisco. Among us were employees in their 50s, and it didn’t stop us from having a great time together.

The internship took place at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View. The work format was hybrid: three days a week we worked from the office. Google also provides the opportunity to work from other offices, and for example, during the summer internship, I worked for a whole week in the New York office.

How to Get a Return Offer

At the end of the internship, we wrote a report on the work done, which was sent to the hiring committee to decide on a return internship. As a STEP intern in my freshman year, I could return either to STEP or to SWE. I chose a return STEP internship and received confirmation in October-November.

After I received the return offer in November, I only learned about the specific team in February. I did not wait for a choice — Google has a process by which all STEP interns are assigned to projects. Managers do not choose interns; they are assigned to projects. The same process was in my first year.

Tips

The processes differ significantly depending on whether you apply from Kazakhstan to other Google offices or from the US. As far as I know, when applying from Kazakhstan to countries other than the US for a STEP internship, there is also project matching, but the offer is not guaranteed because teams may not choose the candidate.

If you apply from the US, it is important to show your leadership qualities — to prove that you are a promising candidate. It is not enough to simply have good grades; you need to be able to lead, communicate well, and possess soft skills. All of this should be reflected in your resume through volunteering, work at the university, or participation in startups, and so on.
I was also told that for a STEP internship, being too strong a programmer can be a disadvantage. If you already have significant experience, it is better to apply for an SWE internship.

I don’t think GPA plays a decisive role when applying for internships. My own GPA is not the highest, but 3.0 and above is a good threshold.

This summer, I will be in Silicon Valley again, but in the San Francisco office, which I am very happy about. I will work in Google Core, that is, on tools used internally at Google — this is internal infrastructure. I will work on an infrastructure status monitoring system. No one will see my work; there are no users because it is other Googlers. After the internship, I will go to Korea for one semester on a study abroad program from my university.